Hathor was the god of many
things, including love and beauty (which is why she is shown on the
mirror), music (which is why she is shown on the
sistrum), joy, and the cemetery of Western Thebes.
She is one of the gods who protected the pharaoh. In the picture left she is
giving life to the pharaoh Thutmose IV.

In the
papyrus to the right Hathor is shown as a cow, emerging from the hills of the west into a
clump of papyrus plants. The papyrus belonged to the scribe Ani. His tomb
chapel is shown in the corner. The inscription on the papyrus is a spell
from the Book of the Dead. It says:

'Hathor, Lady of the West; She of the West; Lady
of the Sacred Land; Eye of Re which is on His forehead; kindly of face in
the Boat of Millions of Years; a resting-place for him who has done right
within the boat of the blessed; who built the Great Boat of Osiris in order
to cross the water of truth.’

Hathor was an important goddess, the daughter of the sun god Re and the
wife of Horus. Her name is written
with a Horus falcon inside a house. She is often shown wearing a sun disc on
her head, with cow horns wrapped round them.

‘Ha'

Temples

At Hatshepsut's temple in
western Thebes, there was a chapel of Hathor. It has columns shaped like a
sistrum, with heads of Hathor with cow's ears (see left).

Hathor also had her own temple,
at Dendara, north of Thebes. This was built at the end of the Egyptian
period, during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus.